A little explanation…

This blog has been created for my undergraduate Civil Rights and Rhetoric course. It is meant to identify and analyze rhetorical responses to Constance McMillen's struggle to attend prom with her girlfriend and the ensuing political and social conflicts. These responses will be pulled from traditionally "non-academic" sources. Everyday people engage in rhetoric, too--and now you can study some of their banter on social media websites!

Facebook Image #3: Lesbian Doesn’t Mean Less of a Person

Alright, I grabbed this image from the “Let Constance Take Her Girlfriend to Prom!” Posting such an image in this group about Constance McMillen is clearly pegging the prom ordeal as a lesbian–and HUMAN–rights issue.

The image is split into four frames. In the first three frames, we are shown images of protest signs and glimpses of a body–but no face. In the final frame, the image zooms out and the sign is removed, capturing now the face and body of a woman. The first three frames say, “Lesbian,” “Doesn’t mean,” “Less of a,” and the last frame says, “being.” Revealing the identity of the sign holder–and showing her face–suggests that “being” is meant as human being. This implied statement, that a Lesbian is a human being, is making the claim that lesbians are deserving of basic human rights, too. The images are simplistic in nature–with the signs and protester being decked out only in black-and-white–and that really reinforces the idea that this is a simple issue and a point that is black-and-white with no gray area to be debated.